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THE NYI STAT PACK - SILLINGER, PART II

by
Staff Writer
/ New York Islanders

Mike's faceoff work, his toughest opponents and more

By Adam Baruch & Chris King

Mike Sillinger

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLEKnown to be one of the toughest face-off men in the National Hockey League, Sillinger consistently gets the job done for his team and can be counted on to step into the circle and win a face-off at any given moment. In fact, since the league started keeping track off face-off percentages in 1998-99, Sillinger has not had a season where he did not win at least 55.0% of his face-off opportunities. Below is a season-by-season look at Mike's face-off percentages, including how many were taken each year:

Year-by-year faceoff breakdown (Since NHL started keeping statistics at the start of 1998-99)...

Year/Games Played

Team

# of Face-off Taken

% of Faceoffs Won

1998-99 / 79 games

Philadelphia/Tampa Bay

549

59.9%

1999-00 / 80 games

Tampa Bay/Florida

741

57.8%

2000-01 / 68 games

Florida/Ottawa

1,243

60.3%

2001-02 / 80 games

Columbus

2,024

57.0%

2002-03 / 75 games

Columbus

1,490

56.5%

2003-04 / 76 games

Phoenix/Nashville

1,122

56.8%

2005-06 / 79 games

St. Louis/Nashville

1,339

55.9%

2006-07 / 82 games

Islanders

1,708

58.8%

WEARING THE ORANGE AND BLUE FOR #1000

Sillinger will become just the sixth Islander to play his 1,000th NHL game wearing the Orange and Blue jersey. Below is a list of how the Islanders fared on each milestone day:

Player

Date

Opponent/Result

Ed Westfall

Feb. 21, 1976

vs. Boston (L 1-2)

Butch Goring

Dec. 20, 1983

vs. Pittsburgh (W 11-3)

Denis Potvin*

Nov. 5, 1987

vs. Pittsburgh (L 2-4)

Bryan Trottier*

Oct. 27, 1988

at Philadelphia (L 2-5)

Keith Acton

Feb. 21, 1994

vs. Washington (W 4-0)

*Note: Denis Potvin and Bryan Trottier were the only two Islanders to play all 1,000 games in an Islanders uniform.

SILLINGER'S "TOP THREE"

New York Islanders radio analyst Chris King recently had an opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Mike Sillinger and talk about a wide variety of things - ranging from Mike's favorite cities to his toughest competition. A list of that conversation has been compiled below: